Quote Queen

Clare Boothe Luce, American editor, playwright, social activist, politician, journalist, and diplomat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

William Hazlitt – 1778 – Critic

“A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.”

Lew Wallace – 1827 – Soldier

“One is never more on trial than in the moment of excessive good fortune.”

Joseph Pulitzer – 1847 – Publisher

“Publicity, publicity, publicity is the greatest moral factor and force in our public life.”

George Arliss – 1868 – Actor

“Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of life.”

Clare Boothe Luce – 1903 – Dramatist

“Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.”

Delores Huerta – 1930 – Activist and Labor Leader

“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”

Omar Sharif – 1932 – Actor

“Working gets in the way of living.”

David Halberstam – 1934 – Journalist

Omar Sharif (Photo credit: David Michael Morris)

“Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.”

John Madden – 1936 – Football Coach and Broadcaster

“Self-praise is for losers.  Be a winner.  Stand for something.  Always have class, and be humble.”

Paul Theroux – 1941 – Novelist

“Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.”

Steven Segal – 1951 – Actor

“Try to find the path of least resistance and use it without harming others.  Live with integrity and morality, and not only with people but with all beings.”

Juan Williams – 1954 – Journalist

“Sometimes you have to understand that you push ahead, there’s going to be a lot of flak, there’s going to be a lot of dogs barking, but the wagon train moves ahead.”

Anne Lamott – 1954 – Author

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”

John M. Ford – 1957 – Writer

“We’re not lost.  We’re locationally challenged.”

Rachel Corrie – 1979 – Activist

“Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don’t give up.”

Michael Pitt – 1981 – Actor

“It sounds cliché, but success is your friends, your family, what you do, and if you’re happy when you wake up.”

Mandy Moore – 1984 – Singer

“Hope is the most exciting thing there is in life.”

Haley Joel Osment – 1988 – Actor

“I like normal stuff people fear – like spiders and heights.  I’m frightened by the unknown, by things that are hard to figure out and get a grip on.”

Hugh Hefner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hugh Hefner – 1926 – Publisher and Editor

“Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream.”

Tom Lehrer – 1928 – Musician

“If a person feels he can’t communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.”

Nathaniel Branden – 1930 – Psychologist

“Live with integrity, respect the rights of other people, and follow your own bliss.”

Jim Fowler – 1932 – Scientist

“I don’t want to save a creek for the creek’s sake, but what’s in it for human beings.”

Paul Krassner – 1932 – Journalist

“For years, reality has been nipping at the heels of satire.  Now, it’s finally caught up.  I don’t need to make this stuff up.”

Carl Perkins – 1932 – Musician

“If it weren’t for the rock in its bed, the stream would have no song.”

Aulis Sallinen – 1935 – Composer

“These days people wallow in enormous masses of sound.”

Sam Ewing – 1949 – Athlete

“Hard work spotlights the character of people:  some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”

English: Actor Dennis Quaid prepares for a VIP flight with the US Navy (USN) Blue Angels. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dennis Quaid – 1954 – Actor

“I could never hold a job for more than three months, which works out well because that’s how long a movie shoots.”

Marc Jacobs – 1963 – Fashion Designer

“I love to take things that are everyday and comforting and make them into the most luxurious things in the world.”

Paulina Porizkova – 1965 – Model

“When I model I pretty much go blank.  You can’t think too much or it doesn’t work.”

Jesse McCartney – 1987 – Musician

“If you really want it, you need to really work for it.”

Portrait of Harvey Cushing by Doris Ullman, 1920s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Harvey Cushing – 1869 – Scientist

“A physician is obligated to consider more than a diseased organ, more even than the whole man – he must view the man in his world.”

Mary Pickford – 1892 – Actress and Producer

“Supposing you have tried and failed again and again.  You may have a fresh start any moment you chose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

Ilka Chase – 1903 – Actress

“You can always spot a well informed man – his views are the same as yours.”

Sonja Henie – 1912 – Ice Skater and Actress

“Jewelry takes people’s minds off your wrinkles.”

Betty Ford – 1918 – Wife of President Gerald Ford

“I have an independent streak.  You know, it’s kind of hard to tell an independent woman what to do.”

Kofi Annan – 1938 – Secretary General of United Nations

“If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.”

Catfish Hunter – 1946 – Baseball Player (James Augustus Hunter)

English: President George W. Bush, Former President Gerald Ford and Betty Ford greet the media at the end of his visit in Rancho Mirage, California, Sunday, April 23, 2006. Français : Président américain George W. Bush avec l’ancien président Gerald Ford et sa femme Betty Ford. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Winning isn’t everything.  Wanting to win is.”

Barbara Kingsolver – 1955 – Novelist

“The truth needs so little rehearsal.”

Evan Davis – 1962 – Economist

“Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in.”

Julian Lennon – 1963 – Son of John Lennon

“On the one hand, I’ve had such a normal upbringing with my mum, who has kept me grounded, but on the other, the wild experiences through my dad.”

Robin Wright Penn – 1966 – Actress

“If you get enough sleep, cut back on cigarettes and red meat, you look better the next day.”

English: Billie Holiday, Downbeat, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

William Wordsworth – 1770 – Poet

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

William Ellery Channing – 1780 – Writer

“Every human being is intended to have character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas – 1890 – Journalist

“All we need, really, is a change from a near frigid to a tropical attitude of mind.”

David Low – 1891 – Cartoonist

“Making a cartoon occupied usually about three full days, two spent in labour and one in removing the appearance of labour.”

Walter Winchell – 1897 – Journalist

“Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.”

Billie Holiday – 1915 – Singer (Eleanora Fagan)

“If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.”

Ravi Shankar – 1920 – Sitarist

“Pop changes week to week, month to month.  But great music is like literature.”

Jackie Chan (Photo credit: neonbubble)

Wayne Rogers – 1933 – Actor

“When you’re in the movie business you have a start date and a stop date.”

Jerry Brown – 1938 – Politician

“Inaction may be the biggest form of action.”

Francis Ford Coppola – 1939 – Director and Writer

“Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.”

Sir David Frost – 1939 – Broadcaster and Businessman

“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.”

Robert Metcalfe – 1946 – Engineer

“The Internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.”

Janis Ian – 1951 – Musician

“Once you’re halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.”

Jackie Chan – 1954 – Actor

“The ads all call me fearless, but that’s just publicity.  Anyone who thinks I’m not scared out of my mind whenever I do one of my stunts is crazier than I am.”

Tony Dorsett – 1954 – Athlete

“To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.”

Christopher Darden – 1956 – Lawyer

“I chose to go to law school because I thought that someday somehow I’d make a difference.”

Russell Crowe – 1964 – Actor

“People accuse me of being arrogant all the time.  I’m not arrogant.  I’m focused.”

Jack Black – 1969 – Actor

“You must never underestimate the power of the eyebrow.”

Lowell Thomas -Historically significant public domain photograph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rose Schneiderman – 1882 – Labor Activist and Social Reformer

“You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also.”

Lowell Thomas – 1892 – News Commentator and Writer

” Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.”

Donald Wills Douglas – 1892 – Aircraft Industrialist

“Dream no small dream; it lacks magic.  Dream large.  Then make the dream real.”

Ram Dass – 1931 – Psychologist

“If you think you’re free, there’s no escape possible.”

Merle Haggard – 1937 – Country Music Singer and Songwriter

“To me, the word ‘rules’ was just something to rhyme with fools.”

Billy Dee Williams – 1937 – Actor and Writer

“Failure’s not a bad thing.  It builds character.  It makes you stronger.”

John Sculley – 1939 – Businessman

“I have found that I always learn more from my mistakes than from my successes.  If you aren’t making some mistakes, you aren’t taking enough chances.”

Neal Boortz – 1945 – Journalist

English: Billy Dee Williams at the 2011 Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Freedom isn’t for wimps.”

Marilu Henner – 1952 – Actress

“Like it or not, the world evolves, priorities change, and so do you.”

Clayton Christensen – 1952 – Businessman

“You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.”

Michele Bachmann – 1956 – Politician

“We’re running out of rich people in this country.”

Frank Black – 1965 – Musician

“But the truth is that critics are by definition critical.  That’s their job.”

This screenshot shows Spencer Tracy as Dr. Jekyll conducting his experiments. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Booker T. Washington – 1856 – Educationist

“No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”

Spencer Tracy – 1900 – Actor

“This mug of mine is as plain as a barn door. Why should people pay 35 cents to look at it?”

Melvyn Douglas – 1901 – Actor

“Don’t make excuses and don’t talk about it.  Do it.”

Richard Eberhart – 1904 – Poet

“Style is the perfection of a point of view.”

Bette Davis – 1908 – Actress

“To look back is to relax one’s vigil.”

Goddard Lieberson – 1911 – Businessman

“Show me an orchestra that likes its conductor and I’ll show you a lousy conductor.”

Gregory Peck – 1916 – Actor

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do, remember?”

Robert Bloch – 1917 – Writer

Cropped screenshot of Bette Davis from the trailer for the film The Letter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame on it.”

Frank Gorshin – 1933 – Actor

“The finer the bait, the shorter the wait!”

Colin Powell – 1937 – Military Leader

“You can’t make someone else’s choices.  You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.”

Dean Kamen – 1951 – Inventor

“I don’t want to think about how many people have thought or still think that I’m crazy.”

Krista Allen – 1972 – Actress

“Life is too short not to do a little practical joking.”

Kim Collins – 1976 – Athlete

“Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.”

Maya Angelou (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lawrence Barrett – 1836 – Actor

“An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow.”

Remy de Gourmont – 1858 – Novelist

“If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be – not understood, but divined.”

Tris Speaker – 1888 – Athlete

“Luck is the great stabilizer in baseball.”

Robert E. Sherwood – 1896 – Playwright

“We all come from our own little planets.  That’s why we’re all different.  That’s what makes life interesting.”

Muddy Waters – 1915 – Musician (McKinley Morganfield)

“If you got something you don’t want other people to know, keep it in your pocket.”

Maya Angelou – 1928 – Writer and Singer (Marguerite Johnson)

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill / of things unknown but longed for still / and his tune is heard on the distant hill / for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

Clive Davis – 1932 – Businessman

“You’ve got to seize the opportunity if it is presented to you.”

Kitty Kelley – 1942 – Journalist

“A hero is someone we can admire without apology.”

Craig T. Nelson – 1944 – Actor

“When there’s that forgiveness present and compassion, it just helps you live so much easier.”

English: Actor Robert Downey Jr. promoting the film “Iron Man” in Mexico City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Christine Lahti – 1950 – Actress

“After doing so many different roles, if you don’t stretch yourself, there’s no excitement left.”

John Hannah – 1951 – Athlete

“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions.  A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.”

David E. Kelley – 1956 – TV and Film Writer

“The more lawyers there are, the more people are out there to encourage others not to go to law school.”

Robert Downey, Jr. – 1965 – Actor

“The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven.”

Jill Scott – 1972 – Musician

“To be a queen of a household is a powerful thing.”

David Blaine – 1973 – Magician

“We are all capable of infinitely more than we believe.”

Heath Ledger – 1979 – Actor

“If you are just safe about the choices you make, you don’t grow.”

A portrait of Washington Irving. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Lyly – 1553 – Writer

“He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose.”

George Herbert – 1593 – Poet

“A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.”

Washington Irving – 1783 – Author (Geoffrey Crayon)

“A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.”

John Burroughs – 1837 – Author

“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.”

Otto Weininger – 1880 – Philosopher

“All genius is a conquering of chaos and mystery.”

Herb Caen – 1916 – Journalist

“A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.”

Marlon Brando – 1924 – Actor

“Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.”

Doris Day – 1924 – Actress (Doris Von Kappelhoff)

“The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it.”

Helmut Kohl – 1930 – Politician

“Peace must be more than the absence of war.”

Jane Goodell – 1934 – Ethologist

Otto Weininger 1903 – Das ofizielle Porträt, vom Original-Verlag verbreitet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

Jan Berry – 1941 – Musician

“When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light – whatever that is for you – no matter how far away it seems.”

Wayne Newton – 1942 – Singer

“I believe that fate is choices – it’s not chance.”

Richard Thompson – 1949 – Musician

“The best thing you’ve got going for you is individuality.”

Eddie Murphy – 1961 – Actor

“I’ve always had confidence.  It came because I have lots of initiative.  I wanted to make something of myself.”

Picabo Street – 1971 – Olympic Skier

“I’m not following anybody’s tracks, I’m making my own, baby.”

Aries Spears – 1975 – Actor

“To sustain longevity, you have to evolve.”

Amanda Bynes – 1986 – Actress

“People have a preconceived notion about who I am and it’s interesting.  It’s like picking who you want to win for the Oscars and not seeing the movie.”

Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) (Photo credit: Political Graveyard)

Giacomo Casanova – 1725 – Celebrity

“It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless.”

Hans Christian Anderson – 1805 – Writer

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”

Emile Zola – 1840 – Novelist

“I am an artist … I am here to live out loud.”

Nicholas M. Butler – 1862 – Philosopher

“An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.”

Walter Chrysler – 1875 – Inventor

“The real secret of success is enthusiasm.”

Max Ernst –  1891 – Artist

“All good ideas arrive be chance.”

Irene Mayer Selznick – 1907 – Producer

“I’d like to grow very old  as slowly  as possible.”

Sir Alec Guinness – 1914 – Actor

“Who is more foolish?  The fool or the fool that follows it?”

Kenneth Tynan – 1927 – Critic

“A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.”

English: Sir Alec Guinness portrait (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Serge Gainsbourg – 1928 – Poet

“Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.”

Marvin Gaye – 1939 – Singer

“I sing about life.”

Penelope Keith – 1940 – Actress

“Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.”

Don Sutton – 1945 – Athlete

“Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny.”

Sue Townsend – 1946 – Novelist

“Live with all of your senses.”

Daniel Okrent – 1948 – Editor

“I’m afraid we’ll see reporters stop chasing quotes around the same time dogs stop chasing cars.”

Christopher Meloni – 1961 – Actor

“I never find sincerity offensive … so, be sincere.”

Jenny Craig – 1971 – Celebrity

“A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.”

William Harvey (Photo credit: Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara)

William Harvey – 1578 – Physician who discovered the circulation of blood

“All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.”

John Wilmot – 1647 – Writer

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.”

Otto von Bismarck – 1815 – Leader

“A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.”

Agnes Repplier – 1855 – Writer

“It has been wisely said that we cannot really love anybody at whom we never laugh.”

Edmond Rostand – 1868 – Poet and Playwright

“A pessimist is a man who tells the truth prematurely.”

Wallace Beery – 1885 – Actor

“I never let anyone sucker me, not even for a nickel.”

Howard Scott – 1890 – Scientist

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (Photo credit: lisby1)

“A criminal is a person with predatory instincts without sufficient capital to form a corporation.”

Alberta Hunter – 1895 – Musician

“Put your faith in God and confidence in yourself.”

Abraham Maslow – 1908 – Psychologist

“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

Alan Perlis – 1922 – Scientist

“Don’t have good ideas if you aren’t willing to be responsible for them.”

Anne McCaffrey – 1926 – Author

“A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.”

Debbie Reynolds – 1932 – Actress (Mary Frances Reynolds)

“I gave it all that I had, and it’s gratifying that others seem to be receiving it so well.”

Ali Mac Graw – 1938 – Actress

“I want to be a person who makes a quiet difference.”

Bijou Phillips – 1980 – Actress

“I can’t change the world.  I have to fix me.”